WaPo: Top Secret America
Huge investigative piece in the Washington Post into
“A hidden world growing beyond control” — National Security Inc. — about the massive expansion of the private and government intelligence and counterterrorism activities.
What was historically sensitive government-only activities has been outsourced to for-profit vendors, with a variety of problems associated with this:
“To ensure that the country’s most sensitive duties are carried out only by people loyal above all to the nation’s interest, federal rules say contractors may not perform what are called “inherently government functions.” But they do, all the time and in every intelligence and counterterrorism agency, according to a two-year investigation by The Washington Post,”
I found the interactive graphic most interesting:
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click for interactive graphic
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Source:
National Security Inc
Washington Post, 12:24 AM, 7/20/2010
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/
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July 20th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
As one who has a security clearance and is a retired military officer, I found the title most telling – “A Hidden World Growing Beyond Control”.
Implications being the intelligence world was once so structured as to be known and controlled – 9/11 showed that to be false – and that the amount of “intelligence” information out there is knowable and controllable. Anyone who believes the latter is very ignorant of intelligence.
“the Department of Defense, where more than two-thirds of the intelligence programs reside”
- facts like these say far more about the author’s intent and bias than the important truths.
July 20th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
I hope they don’t forget ‘cyberspace’..
http://poorrichards-blog.blogspot.com/2010/07/group-calls-for-hearings-into-googles.html
http://search.yippy.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&v%3Aproject=clusty&query=EPIC+Google+CIA+NSA
http://search.yippy.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&v%3Aproject=clusty&query=USAF+Cybercommand
you know, for starters..
July 20th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
It’s even more depressing being on the inside of the beast; conflicts of interest are rampant.
Another thing could be at play here as well; since the Bushies classified so much information after 9/11, everyone who touches it requires a clearance, and that increased the number of classified personnel to deal with it.
July 20th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
And if the outsourcing in the Irak war is any indication then we are paying at least twice the amount of money to have a private company do the same job. Remember the truck drivers paid a salary of $500/day to drive supplies when a private is paid $50 to do the exact same job. Lots of soldiers decided not to reenlist after that so the damage was even beyond the simple paying 10 times as much. But in this case it is all secret so we will never hear the specifics.
July 20th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
This has become a huge boondoggle. A friend who lives in a bedroom suburb of New Orleans was given a little tour of their old courthouse. It now has several rooms with big screen tv’s and employees to watch them. Reminds me of an episode of King of the Hill I saw awhile back.
What there is to watch in that boring suburb I have no idea. It has no industry or transportation centers or other targets for terrorists, just a lot of right wing suburbanites. All of that is courtesy of federal funds. They’d do a lot better to use the money to you hire more cops.
July 20th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Our government’s glorificous political class has no idea of the concept of “lean & mean”.
Is it any wonder it’s so woefully out of control?
July 20th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
DC area real estate … the only boom left!
July 20th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
next destination = police state
one of your many fans beat you to the punch on this story BR- I read a link last night regarding this from Calvin Jones-
also- covel- there is no RE boom in DC- sucking wind like everywhere else
July 20th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
What should we do??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a1nVLq-pig
July 20th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
I guess this means when anyone complains about the growth in Federal employees the answer back will be an indignant
“What?! Are you against securing the nation?!!”
July 20th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
I hate to comment on this, but that GE pop up ad is becoming seriously annoying. Barry, you probably cannot control this, but it really distracts from your site.
~~~
BR: I already complained this weekend about all of the pushdown ads. They really suck . . .
July 20th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Use Zoom to All to see Hawaii … Nice GiG if you can get it ;-)
July 20th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
And what’s the difference in security (or lack thereof)? There is no shortage of US government employees with the highest security clearances who act contrary to the US’s interests (spying, etc.) And while we’re at it, doesn’t it seem strange the gov’t was so eager to get those Russian spies out of the country (and thereby prevent any interrogations about with whom they were working / connected to / funnelling political contributions)…?
I’ll just sit back and let the hounds on this board accuse me of being anti-gubmint…..
July 20th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
@call me ahab;
“next destination = police state”
Next?
It’s already here:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/06/gonzalo-lira-is-the-u-s-a-fascist-police-state.html
July 20th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
I saw the article yesterday. No matter how you slice it…..it doesn’t sit well.
The ‘risk’ of abuse is strikingly high.
July 20th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Part and parcel of a capture strategy. Fifth columnists within the Federal Govt are pushing forward the broad project of gaining instrumental control over the sovereign powers of the STATE. BTW, the mutilation of thought, memory, knowledge of the past/history, perversion of the discourse that informs religious belief and practice, in sum, the Death Cult (take a look at how many people walk around with skull imagery on the person)- a necessary condition for the goals of this process. But hey some about topline growth, yadda yadda, look there’s Lindsay Somebody or other going to jail, boobs, clothes, food for foodies!!!! Yay! It’s dinnertime in America.
Dystopia, it’s not just for movies anymore…
July 20th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
To be ready 24 hours a day, every day, takes five brigadier generals, a staff of colonels and senior noncommissioned officers – and a man wearing a pink contractor badge and a bright purple shirt and tie.
Makes me think of Paul Reiser’s character Carter Burke in the movie Aliens. Just a matter of time until The Company takes over, isn’t it?
July 20th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
and, from a different facet.;.
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/bill-arkin-top-secret-america-tim-shorrock-why-did-it-take-them-7-years-to-do-this-story/
WaPo, the MSM, always ~Barking, “after the Car speeds off”..
also, from the link, don’t miss (these Hyperlinks):
Are You a “Perfect Citizen”? by Tom Burghardt
Peter Dale Scott: Continuity of Government Planning
Big Brother FBI: Data-Mining Programs Resurrect “Total Information Awareness” by Tom Burghardt
July 20th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
I know many people working in the private sector, suckling on the over-priced bids and doing the government’s work for them. It’s easy to work around: hire someone in the government to sit there and look over an actual productive workers. Not to mention all of these people have a vested interest in existing without competition and no focus on efficiency.
That isn’t to say that I want a very efficient government, I just want it smaller.
A government which governs least, governs best. – or something
July 20th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Francois T-
Thanks for the link. I read that article somewhere a few weeks ago- can’t even remember where- but this paragraph is particularly chilling-
By a 6-3 majority, the Supreme Court has explicitly stated that Congress and/or the Executive is “uniquely positioned” to determine who is a terrorist and who is not—and therefore has the right to silence not just the terrorist organization, but anyone trying to speak to them, or hear them.
This fight against terrorism is turning into a “power” grab- or maybe we citizens were under the false that we actually have rights in the first place-
I had my doubts when the Bush admin came up with “Homeland Security”- talk about a term that should make anyone cringe
July 20th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
correton last post- should read “under the false impression”
MEH says-
WaPo, the MSM, always ~Barking, “after the Car speeds off”..
that is as well put as a phrase can be-
where was the media during the implementation stages? It appears- just like our foray into Iraq- they were unable to shine the light on questionable (if not illegal) decisions
July 20th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Perfect, Barry! I’m lecturing tomorrow on George W. Bush as the full realization of conservatism tomorrow, and this will go right into my slide on his commercialization of government!
July 20th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
I was once or more an insider. Top Secret cat III SI/TK/BE/HO. Can remember when the NRO was a small op in the lower bowels of the Pentagon. My how they’ve grown. And I also was a key industry rep arguing with the FBI over CALEA and wiretapping. I saw people get fired for disagreeing with the FBI a little too openly.
I can recall when Congressmen were irate that the NRO complex was built without explicit Congressional funding approval. It’s quite a spectacular campus. But it went unpunished.
And it just keeps getting worse.
We are now a police state where the contractors are ripping taxpayers by a factor of ten or more. Most taxpayers have no concept of a billion dollars, and a billion in DC won’t get you arrested. But the fat cat contracting executives are banking and building their Caribbean or SA fortresses with our money.
It’s totally tragic. It’s as if taking taxpayer money by the wheelbarrelful is not only allowed, it’s required. Who was it that said they did not want to shrink the federal government, they wanted to drown it in a bathtub?
Well they’re doing a great job of emptying the till into their pockets.
And as the say “the beauty of it is”, the taxpayer is funding a dragnet of sensors that is turned totally inward to enforce taxpayer compliance.
Every single taxpayer is potentially a terrorist by their def. Try it and see for yourself. Start camera spotting as some of us have. Very, very scary.
July 20th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
Amazing thing is that nobody is demanding proof that giving the work to private contractors actually save any money or deliver better products/service. Its been sort of an ideologically based presumption and despite countless examples to the contrary we keep wasting huge amounts of money by contracting the work out. Now there is a good place to begin cutting waste and spending without it reducing the services; tea-partiers are you with me?
July 20th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
Don’t worry overmuch, Alfred. The video monitors are manned by private contractors who could care less. They show up, fill out their logs, and make it all look legit. Just another scam to funnel money up the line to the big boys. I love how people criticize our porous borders on the one hand but then fear the all-seeing eye of the Military Industrial Complex on the other. The all-powerful machine did not win in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan but rather has caused a great deal of mischief to create a market for its toys. Congressional earmarks and military pork to keep the constituents employed making machines that may or may not work as advertised. Soldiers sent to war without relatively inexpensive battle armor. Ineptitude and corruption.
July 20th, 2010 at 11:01 pm
bin Laden declares victory.
July 21st, 2010 at 2:14 am
The question is:
WHY is the Washington Post, a war cheerleader of the first order, publishing this? What’s their angle? Are they looking for some credibility so they can push the Iran war scam more believably? I wouldn’t put it past them. Since when has the Washington Post (or the New York Times, for that matter) advocated for truly responsible government? These media whores are playing us again. This in no way this ‘investigative journalism’ is going to reduce this monster. So there must be some other reason. Truth isn’t their thing.
Why aren’t the top executives in Bank of America and Wells Fargo in jail for 340 billion dollars (that’s right – BILLION) in money laundering? They make a mockery of our laws and the Post wants to talk about national security bling? Give me a break.
July 21st, 2010 at 8:39 am
I am retired military officer, retired US civil servant and now a support contractor. Here are some demographics: Uniformed about 2.2 million including reserve and guard. DoD civilian around 800,000, contractors around 860,000.
In my 25 year DoD acquisition experience a lot of GS acquisitioin jobs went contract. When the design tests fail and the department needs to keep the congress critters happy and build missionless trash like the San Antonio class of Amphib ship or Osprey it is easier to get a contractor to go along with the treasonous pillaging than a civil servant who has a way to grieve if you fire him or her for pointing out the fraud of doing most of the acquisition.
Then contractors also get around personnel ceiling, another fraud but hey it is for the war profits. They are paid from money that should go to buying stuff, good thing it is not needed and just a jobs program.
There is a law 5 USC 3109 which says if DoD or a service component needs a consultant for more than a year then get a civilian employee. One of the innumerate laws not even recognized in DoD. Sec Gates is belatedly making all those retired general officer “mentors” become GS’ after how many years? At how much lower costs?
The last to keep this short: to get around the 5 USC 3109 most support contracts are services non personal which means not only is the employee doing the work over paid and under performing but there has to be a company support structure to make it look like the company is delivering a service while the reality is the contractors are personal servants and recieving reports for “services” are fictions. Good thing US attorneys have figured out how not to do Qui Tam on DoD frauds, they would need a legion of litigators.
July 21st, 2010 at 8:43 am
When did they cross the Rubicon?
Jefferson warned of the threat to liberty of standing armies and banks.
July 21st, 2010 at 9:11 am
Just an observation, – there are really not that many facilities near the Canadian or Mexican border.
July 21st, 2010 at 10:26 am
The K-street project at its beautiful completion. GOPsters get money from corporations so they can be elected. They initiate a full size expansion of private contracting so those same campaign donors can rape taxpayers for a huge return on their investment. GOPsters use their power to appoint obedient little boys to the Supreme Court. Obedient little Supreme Court boys give “personhood” to corporations, so pesky little Dems cannot stop K-street project. Corporations use their personhood and associated free speech rights to blast Dems out of the way so GOPsters can get back in power and continue opening the doors for the corporations to rape the sheeple who elected them, because as Fox told them “there is no difference between the two parties”.
July 21st, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Any minute now, the tea partiers and deficit chickenhawks will attack this monumental waste of taxpayer funds.
(* crickets *)
“Question the Security State? Why do you hate America?”
July 22nd, 2010 at 12:20 am
@Mike: The tea partiers will never challenge this. They want their gated community cameras monitored continuously with armed troops ready to intervene.
That’s what it’s all about. Ask BR.
July 23rd, 2010 at 10:18 am
Here is what the contractors are doing with their super-spooky computers at NSA and NRO:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/07/23/pentagon_workers_tied_to_child_porn/